I knew that I wanted a Hermann’s Tortoise but I didn’t know where to get one from. Someone that I know has Hermann Tortoises, I blame her for my obsession ;). I contacted her first to see if she had any babies available but she only had 2 babies this year and they had already found homes.

I also knew that our local farm park had them but I knew that they were kept in a vivarium which worried me. Tortoises need air flow and the glass fronts can make them stressed as they don’t understand why they can’t get through them. A little research told me that the tortoises that they had were imported from Slovenia. I wanted one that was born in the U.K. so this wasn’t an option.

I turned to the Internet to find our new addition. I came across a registered breeders list on the Tortoise Trust website. Our nearest breeder was 1 hour 30 minutes away but I was willing to travel.

When the tortoise table was set up we went to collect our baby. 😉 The breeders house was amazing! She had tortoises all over her garden! I had visions of what our house might be like in a few years time but I didn’t share these with my husband. 😉

We returned home and got our little one settled in. Bob loved him straight away and even my husband had to admit that he was nice.

I have been enjoying learning about which plants they like to eat. A great site is The Tortoise Table and I am forever comparing plants to photos on there. I am even growing my own weeds in the utility room. My husband thinks I’m crazy!

We are still undecided on a name. You don’t know the sex of a tortoise until they are about 5 years old so it is hard to know what to call ‘it’. We went though the silly names such as Eggbert, Shelly & Sheldon. ( No offence to anyone called any of those. They are only silly when given to a tortoise.) With it being a Hermann’s tortoise we wondered about Herman if he was a boy or Hermione if she was a girl.

We are still unsure and tend to just call him/her Tortoise. If you have any ideas let me know.

‘It’ is just beautiful! Congratulations on your new addition We have 2 rescue cats in a London flat so any more pets are out of the equation for now (just wait until we have a house with a garden one day…) xxx

O he/she is very lovely! I love the Herman Hermione idea, but why don’t you let bob see if she can come up with something – when I was little I had a rabbit, which had a little gold speck under its neck. So based on I wanted to call the rabbit silver (I was quiet young) but my two year younger sister could only say Bobbit. So after much telling off by me for not calling the rabbit Silver my parents very cleverly suggested Silverbobbit as the name, which stuck.

It’s one way to come up with an original name, and I bet Bob won’t be worried about a name which matches a correct gender – just a suggestion!